Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Good Idea, Bad Idea

When I was an early teen there was a short lived cartoon called the Anamaniacs. This cartoon featured the antics of characters Yacko, Wacko and Dot who lived in the WB studios water tower; as well as other shorts such as the goodfeathers, the original pinky and the brain episodes, and one of my personal favorites good idea, bad idea.

An episode of good idea, bad idea only lasted about a minute and an example of my favorite one would be:
Good idea- feeding cats in the park
Bad idea- feeding cats in the park...to a bear!

Today I  had my own version of the show:
Good idea- Taking a rest day before a half marathon.
Bad idea- using your rest day for 9 miles of mountain biking

I have never been one for drugs or even alcohol for the most part, however adrenalin has always been my personal heroin, whether rock climbing, rappelling, mountain biking, or snowboarding I love the rush. I certainly do not push the envelope in any of these and am probably more cautious than you average rider but I love it just as much.

Today I went back to the signal hill trail where I rode Saturday for another ride. I am on vacation this week and am trying to take advantage of my time before school lets out and CB is home, before we dive into family madness, and before I have to go back to my own personal purgatory of a job.

Although I did not hit any trees today I did fall three times in the first 15 minutes on the trail. I blame the first two most likely on my back wheel sliding on a root, one or both of them scraped up my left ankle pretty decent. I am not sure what caused the third fall but I do know that I hit something, I'm thinking the bike, and bruised my right knee. I am icing it as I type.  I may have fallen a few more times but I don't remember. I completed over 10 hike-a-bikes up hills because that third fall made me a bit more cautious for the day.

I did a little better with the technical obstacles today. I rode two of that thing above, I have never known what they are called, but I love them. I rode the skinny I showed the other day twice as far, but not the end. I also found a huge teeter-totter that I did not see last time and rode it. It was awesome but made me nervous because it didn't start to drop until I was about two feet from the end. I also made it over the bridge I fell off of last weekend. This ride left me debating if I should stick to some more novice trails until my skill are back or keep working on this trail. The pro is less likely to get hurt on an easier trail, but the con is easier trails are not as much fun to me.

As you near the end of the trail there is a sign for an extra loop- the circuit city loop, I didn't take it last time but I thought I would try it this time. Once I rode out to the start of the loop I noticed the sign said more difficult and there was a skeleton hanging in the tree. This was probably a bad sign but I tried it anyways. I did have some nice stunts, but I am not sure I would have called it more difficult. I would probably call it faster. It would be flowing really fast and then the bottom of the trail would drop almost straight down out of no where. With all the drops, pedaling back up at the end sucked.

With that out of my system for the day I am committed to not riding tomorrow and making anything worse and impacting my race Thursday. I am prepping my mind for the half marathon. I am trying to think about what to wear because there is a 50% chance it will be 30 degrees and raining. I don't have clothes for that. I am also trying to decide if I should bring my own gels and water bottle. Everything I read says no, but I can't find any reviews for the last four years saying where they have aid station and what they have at them.

On the triathlon front I am still searching for a decent bike. CB says she has a little money put together I can use but not enough for a new bike, I have been scouring BT.com and ebay for bikes. I can not race next year on the bike I have.  It needs more in parts than it is worth and I have already put an equal amount into it. However, I am thinking about getting a trainer (sadly I sold my old trainer from college) and a new back tire for the old bike. This way I can begin following a plan and in case I do get a bike I will be closer to ready than if I didn't ride at all. I was recently offered a discount via sponsorship from a bike company but sadly even with the discount I can not afford the $5,000 bikes.

What do you think about training with a trainer, what to wear for cold rain, or what to bring to a longer race. Your comments are always appreciated!

Lastly a shameless plug. I posted some items on craigslist in NC and thought I would share them here too.
If you, your spouse or your child would like to learn to play bass guitar I have a whole kit here http://charlotte.craigslist.org/msg/2073342452.html. I also have the equipment I used to do recording for the theatre department in college, they would probably would make a great set up for doing podcasts. You can see it here... http://charlotte.craigslist.org/msg/2073316413.html.

4 comments:

Patrick said...

Hmmm, a skeleton hanging in the tree. That would either be a sign to go back, or, to tempt fate. Whew, a $5,000 bike... just how much better can a bike get to warrant that price?

Have fun with the race & happy Thanksgiving!

TRI714 said...

Thats a cool area to ride. I dig the obsticles. Have a great race.

Patrick Mahoney said...

How can it rain at 30 degrees? I would be less concerned about the temp and more with the rain + the temp, especially after you stop. I'd probably go out with a l/s tech tee and a shell jacket, that should do it. Oh yeah, and a hat.

Also bring the gels and water, can't hurt and you can always leave them in the car.

Big Daddy Diesel said...

I was sore for a couple days after I MTB

- Trainer, its gold if you use it right, if you just spin, then your wasting your time, a trainer is used to train on things that are not safe on the open road. I highly suggest Spinervals DVDs

- Cold rain, Base undershirt, arm warmers, vest, rain proof shell. clear lens for sunglasses, you can try to water proof all you want, you still will get soaked.